{"id":6910,"date":"2022-06-17T17:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T21:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=6910"},"modified":"2022-07-05T12:24:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T16:24:18","slug":"what-happened-to-red-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2022\/06\/what-happened-to-red-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"What happened to Red Chicago?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“At the Roulette Table in Monte Carlo,” Eduard Munch<\/a>, 1892.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

C<\/span>hicago\u2019s pugnacious Mayor Lori Lightfoot won a major political victory on May 25 when the city council voted 41 to 7 for global entertainment giant Bally\u2019s<\/a> proposal to build a $1.74 billion casino and resort in Chicago, the first of its kind in the city. The casino will be built in the River West neighborhood where the Chicago Tribune<\/em> printing plant and newsroom are currently located. It is as central a spot in the city as you can get for the mega hotel-gambling complex.<\/p>\n

Promising to solve Chicago\u2019s perennial budgetary woes through increased tax revenues and employment, Bally\u2019s also offered to pay upfront $40 million<\/a> towards the city\u2019s chronically underfunded police and firefighter pensions. An array of labor unions, including the Chicago Federation of Labor and the hotel workers union, dropped their initial opposition and campaigned hard for the casino, after they were assured that Bally\u2019s would sign a union contract.<\/p>\n

As in cities and states across the U.S., legalized gambling has been hailed as a long term financial fix by many, it was also seen by critics<\/a> as both a quick (and unsustainable) fix<\/a> and one based largely on regressive taxation<\/a>. And in Chicago, it is just another in a long list of boondoggles that have been pushed by the city\u2019s Mayors<\/a> for the past two decades and rubber stamped by a compliant city council. A few stand out, however, including the parking meter<\/a> scandal, selling off Chicago\u2019s skyway<\/a>, and the Sterling Bay\u2019s \u201cLincoln Yards\u201d development planned for the old Finkl Steel yard, which could cost city taxpayers over $1.3 billion<\/a> before it is finished.<\/p>\n

Big developers have been making a fortune off of these scams for a long time at the expense of working class Chicagoans. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) specifically targeted<\/a> Sterling Bay during their 2019 strike as an example of tax dollars going to big developers at the expense of public schools. Chanting \u201cChoose Schools over Sterling Bay\u201d protestors were arrested outside Sterling Bays\u2019 West Loop headquarters. CTU President Jesse Sharkey was later criticized by leaders of the building trades for highlighting Sterling Bay\u2019s sweetheart deal with the city.<\/p>\n

In the short-lived \u201cdebate\u201d before the final city council vote on the casino project, one alderperson Byron Sigcho-Lopez took on Lightfoot and she didn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as legislators we have the responsibility to review this process, a failed process, in an administration that is more worried about campaign contributions than doing the right thing for the city of Chicago,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sigcho-Lopez said<\/a>. Lightfoot exploded in rage at him, that even for Lightfoot was unique. Lightfoot yelled:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are a liar! You are a liar here! I sit here and I will not tolerate you besmirching the hard work of so many people who have worked on this! Almost every word that comes out of your mouth after you say your name is a lie!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sygcho-Lopez , the alderperson for the 25th<\/sup> Ward in Chicago, was the lone socialist out of the six socialists\u2014all members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)\u2014on the city council to publicly dissent and vote no on Bally\u2019s casino project. Why wasn\u2019t Lightfoot screaming at all of them?<\/p>\n

Where do the other socialist alderperson\u2014elected in a radical wave of activism dubbed \u201cRed Chicago\u201d<\/a> in 2019\u2014stand on this issue? Four members of the socialist caucus<\/a>: Daniel La Spata, Rossana Rodriguez S\u00e1nchez, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, and Jeanette Taylor voted for it. DSA alderperson Andre Vasquez isn\u2019t a member of the socialist caucus but he also voted for it. While a much larger bloc of self-styled \u201cprogressives\u201d also voted for the casino, including far Southside alderperson Sue Sadlowski-Garza and far Northside alderperson Maria Hadden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among the seven \u201cno\u201d votes for the casino was Alderperson Ed Burke, the most corrupt<\/a>\u2014and still serving\u2014member of the city council. It\u2019s doubtful Burke has had a late-in-life moral conversion. Based on recent history, including a pending federal trial<\/a>, it\u2019s fair to imagine that Burke\u2019s no vote flows from him and his law firm not getting a piece of the casino action. How can the odious Burke vote no but socialists\u2014 especially, when casinos are the worst example of predatory capitalism<\/a> that one can imagine\u2014and progressives vote yes?<\/p>\n

Part of the answer is the role of the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL). Dominated by the building trades, the CFL has supported every major construction project in the past three decades, despite the devastating gentrification such projects have inflicted on the city. Even more important was the role of Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) Local 1<\/a> in pushing a yes vote for the casino, which represents largely workers of color across Chicago and Northwestern Indiana.<\/p>\n